Fox Green

• The Longest April [self-released, 2020] ***
• Holy Souls [self-released, 2022] A-
• Light Over Darkness [self-released, 2024] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

The Longest April [self-released, 2020]
Classic rock in the formal tradition of, gee, the Stones even, only milder--oftimes hooky songs delivered in a caring, affecting voice, they peak with a joke-rock classic and and seldom sink into anonymity ("The Day Marc Bolan Went to Nashville," "Cloud #9") ***

Holy Souls [self-released, 2022]
Where their 2020 The Longest April was solid with impressive highlights, the songwriting on this unmistakably southern, utterly humanistic straight rock album from Arkansas tends spectacular verbally if less striking tunewise or jamwise. The lucky thing or maybe it was planned that way is that Wade Derden's mild, unaccented vocal affect suits the decency of the lyrics perfectly, turning them into something radiant from "I saw your daddy in a dream/His eyes were laser beams/He was a gamma ray" to "He's got sweet, sweet rims/And he's got you, he's got you," with the likes of "My baby is on the jail app/For everyone to see/My baby is on the jail app/But she's still my baby to me" and "Like two virgins in a sleeping bag/Tender and reckless in our love" biding their time in between. Eager to believe there's hope for America, not to mention Americana? Try this. A-

Light Over Darkness [self-released, 2024]
Easily the best-realized of this likable Little Rock quintet's three biggish-rock albums, smoother and more fetching musically and lyrically, with special kudos for "Sleepy John Estes" ("and my mom"), "6 Days Sober" (only every Saturday the same gal escorts him off the wagon), and "Jones Street Revisited" (which Little Rock or no Little Rock I like to imagine is about the Greenwich Village block where the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan cover was shot and my wife grew up). But the big door prize bears the unlikely title "Jesus Loves Us All," unlikely because that outsized "us" is far more inclusive than we have every right to doubt or fear as the case may be. "Here's to Little Richard," they peal, and in a world where what everyone wants is "some decent healthcare" they mean everything that implies. "One day I'll get back to Jesus," they pledge, and because they're so sure he'll be there for them they very nearly convince me--metaphorically, anyway. A-